You know them, you love them, and you can’t find them anywhere outside the borough. Check out any of these Queens standards for a tried-and-true break from the boring.

From Celluloid To Celebrities

No, popcorn isn’t allowed in the American Museum of the Moving Image, but the stuff inside is filling enough. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

Looking to beat the heat when the mercury rises? You’ll have to leave your craving for popcorn at the door, but the Museum of the Moving Image is one of the best spots in Queens to cool the overheated film aficionado.

Despite rumors, they actually don’t allow popcorn inside the hallowed halls of this Astoria archive. But considering there isn’t a bad seat in the house to view long-forgotten flicks and upcoming blockbusters, as well as the country’s biggest collection of silver screen artifacts, you might be content to live without it.

The museum is also at the heart of New York City’s movie business, so don’t be surprised if some polite jockeying for an armrest has you rubbing elbows with celebrities. In years past, Al Pacino and Winona Rider have popped in to hear John Malkovich discuss his film, “The Dancer Upstairs,” which made its New York premiere at the museum. And when you’re done perusing the relics, you may well see some famous faces stuffing their faces at nearby restaurants, too. Big screen notables like Woody Allen and Nicole Kidman have been known to frequent the neighborhood eateries.

If you can’t make it to the museum, you can take a gander at its website, www.ammi.org. It’s got a slew of archived interviews with big-name directors and actors. You can even buy merchandise online from the museum’s gift shop-it’s a film buff’s goldmine of movie posters, action figures, and books ode to the big and little screen. (JP)

Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Ave. and 35th St., Astoria, (718) 784-4520. General Admission $10, Senior Citizens and students $7.50, children $5, kids 5 and under free.

Trolling For Tourists

The Queens Culture Trolley celebrated its first birthday at the beginning of May.Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

If there’s one thing we at Fun Guide central love more than free stuff, it’s free stuff that we’d actually pay for if it weren’t free. Come to think of it, if there’s one thing we love even more than that, it’s free stuff we’d actually pay for that also lets us sit around on our keisters while somebody else entertains us-which is probably why we’re so into the Queens Culture Trolley.

The borough-crossing tour vehicle celebrates its first anniversary in operation this month. Put into service by Queens borough prez Helen Marshall (now looked after by the parks department), it pushes off from Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Corona Park between 1 and 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and makes stops from the park to Jackson Heights, LaGuardia Airport, and back again.

Riders are treated to a smattering of everything Queens has to offer, from the Queens Botanical Garden and New York Hall of Science, to the eats on Northern Boulevard’s Restaurant Row, to the South Asian markets on 74th Street. It also drops by Louis Armstrong’s former house and museum, and the eminently shoppable boutiques along Roosevelt Avenue.

The trolley makes about three loops of the borough a day, so if you’re looking to maximize your Queens experience, we recommend starting early. (JP)

The Queens Culture Trolley leaves Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Corona Park at 1p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Call (718) 592-0090 for more information, or check out www.queensmuseum.org for a complete trolley schedule.

 

Mix History With Pleasure

Gantry Plaza State Park gives picnickers an unrivaled view of Manhattan. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

It may be a great place to watch 4th of July fireworks, but other days of the year when the crowd thins out at Gantry Plaza State Park, it’s a perfect place for a picnic, too. The midtown skyline’s just across the river, the view of Roosevelt Island ain’t bad, and nothing beats being right on the water. Just be sure to bring your food with you; finding cold cuts nearby can be a challenge.

Back when the Queens waterfront was a busy shipping area, the two gantries, or cranes, that gave the park its name were used to hoist cargo from ships to railroad cars. These days, they still stand above the park’s two-and-a-half acres, but the space beneath them has been entirely transformed. Landscaped with native grasses, there are four piers and Peninsula Park, on the northern end, which has a grassy field ideal for setting up an old blanket and a basket.

Dedicated in 1998 on May 15th, the Gantry Plaza State Park was the first phase of the development planned by Queens West Development Corporation. While at first there was resistance from the local population, it quickly became appreciated and soon residents formed Friends of Gantry State Park, an organization that helps maintain the park. (ML)

To get to the park, take the 7 train to the Vernon Boulevard/Jackson Ave. stop and walk west two blocks.

School House Art

It’s easy to dig up creative fun at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center

In a former life, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center actually was a school. But in its reincarnation as Queens’ home of modern and avant garde art, it’s still a place to learn. Why, where else can people learn to appreciate dogs (fake ones) lynched on streetlights? And where can a can a man claiming to control the weather set up his meteorological device and not be laughed at?

Located on the hip, western edge of the borough in Long Island City, P.S.1 is an art center and surprisingly not as extroverted as some other nearby exhibition spaces (namely Five Pointz, whose building exterior is a canvas of intricate graffiti murals).

As the summer starts to heat up, so does the 10-week outdoor dance party, Warm Up 2005, which brings together hip partygoers, DJs, and visual artists in an urban festival setting designed by artists. Along with cutting edge visuals, party goers can soak in music ranging from techno samples and house beats to hip-hop poetry and Latin-inspired electronic rock.

We like to think those unversed in the latest trends in art can get an anxiety-free lesson at P.S.1-the elementary school-sized staircase and handrails help the art inspire without intimidating. (AP)

P.S.1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. (right off 46th Ave.) in L.I.C. Open noon to 6 p.m., Thu.-Mon. closed Tue.- Wed. Admission prices are suggested at $5 for adults, $2 for students and seniors. For more information, call (718) 784-2084.

Free Tunes at Town Hall

Grande dame of the neighborhood, Flushing Town Hall hosts free concerts all summer.Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

What’s better than free entertainment? The free summer concert series at Flushing Town Hall is a great way to spend a hot summer night and glimpse the legendary Queens building.

Concerts run twice a month in July and August with musical performances of American pop, Caribbean, Yiddish and Broadway show tunes.

Kicking off the July 8 show will be Mike Butler and his band, performing popular folk and Top 40 hits of the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary. This concert features the music that helped shape the American pop music culture in 1960s through the 1970s.

Guaranteed to make any nationality want to grow dreads, on July 22 the Tribal Legacy will be performing classic reggae that includes music by Bob Marley, The Mighty Sparrow, and Byron Lee & The Dragonaires.

The August 5 performance promises a “simkhes”-or joyful event-when the Metropolitan Klezmer brings eclectic exuberance to Yiddish musical genres from all over the world. Their music reinvents traditional klezmer music with a mix of both light-hearted irreverence and respect. Klezmer music originated in the ghettos of Eastern Europe, inspired by secular melodies, popular dances and generally wordless melodies intended by the Orthodox Jews for approaching God.

Later in August, some of the greatest American musical renditions will be performed on the 19th, when singers Kim Kalesti and Marion Cowings pay homage to composers Rodgers & Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Kern, Stephen Sondheim, and George and Ira Gershwin, performing classic numbers from West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera, Porgy and Bess and Pippin. (MR)

All shows are free and start at 8 p.m. The series is sponsored by the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts at Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., in Flushing. For more information call (718) 463-7700.

Raise The Roof (And The Curtain)

Performances at Queens Theatre In The Park have something for everyone.(photo credit) Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

If Queens is the home of all nations, Queens Theatre in the Park is the dancehall of the world. Tucked inside Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the 22-year-old theater, where Irish step dancing, Peruvian ballet and “Plays A Mother Would Love” (real name) take place under one roof, is prime seating for multi-cultural merriment.

For those less inclined to sit through anything called a ballet or a play, there are performances like “Welcome to Arroyo’s,” where DJs spin the soundtrack to a story of two siblings, a local bodega and a secret history.

With so much cultural elbow rubbing, of course some new styles are born. Take “swango.” QTIP describes it as the natural byproduct occurring “when the passion of tango is infused with the sensuality of West Coast swing [dancing].” Add a pinch of love story, and you’ve got yourself a theatre show for everybody.

Other recent performances include Ruandi, a collection of children’s plays set on a Cuban sugar plantation, and “Women’s Secrets,” a delicious comedy about the lives of three women, as portrayed by three men. The funnyman with rabbinical roots, Jackie Mason, perfected his one-man show at QTIP before taking it to Broadway.

“Plays A Mother Would Love” are family-oriented plays put together by emerging artists. Check out QTIP’s website for a full schedule; the list of cultural plays and performances is seemingly endless. (AP)